Ron Paul- Will he place 2nd or better in today's Iowa straw poll?

[Jay Cohen]

I think he has a shot.

[TheEngineer]

Let's hope so. It would be a great message to send to the party (of course, we'll be sending the real message next Nov.)

[Berge20]

I think one of the guys not participating will have a decent shot at finishing 2nd, although the Iowa caucus folk aren't real pleased about their not being involved with it.

Of the 2nd+ tier guys, I think Huckabee will take 2nd. Romney wins with ~32%

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

any chance of paul as the 3rd candidate to swing the election to the democrat ala RP

[Karak567]

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any chance of paul as the 3rd candidate to swing the election to the democrat ala RP

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he's already said he wont run as an independent. he doesnt want to help hillary or obama get into office (and neither do i)

[Legislurker]

A giuliani or Romney presidency would be an unmitigated disaster. Quite possible we could wind up with 7 ChristaNazi jurists on the Supreme Court. Every Fed Dept will be run by a kid Dobson molested at Summer Camp. Poker players will be forced to wear burkas picking up trash on the highway to apologize to jesus. The Dems flirted with becoming totally irrelevant. but somehow the REpublicans screwed the pooch. As much as I hate the idea, a Dem in office is better than anyone in the Rep field plus Thompson minus Ron Paul. I pray for a total defeat in 08 and the implosion of the [censored] the Republican Party has become, and that Dobson dies old, alone, shocked, and wondering why God deserted him while the gates of Hell open wide for him.

[TheEngineer]

Results:

Gov. Mitt Romney: 31.5 percent (no rating)
Gov. Mike Huckabee: 18.1 percent (F)
Sen. Sam Brownback: 15.3 percent (F-)

Tommy Thompson came in 6th and likely will leave the race.

[Greg Miller]

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any chance of paul as the 3rd candidate to swing the election to the democrat ala RP

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Pollsters don't like to put zeros in their results, so they list Ron Paul with an asterisk in the polls. Polls typically don't have large enough sample sets for him to even register any support.

He isn't swinging any elections to anyone, and he wouldn't want to swing an election to someone at the opposite extreme of the political spectrum, like Hillary or Obama.

It would almost be worth seeing him get elected just to watch Democrats sputter on TV after he vetoed 40 or 50 bills in a row. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img] If nothing else, he could unite career politicians in both parties against him.

The real question is whether or not enough conservative candidates drop out quickly enough to hand the nomination to Thompson. If so, it could be a tight general election. If not, Giuliani likely wins over Hillary in a walk.

Giuliani is a little too authoritarian for my tastes, but there's nobody on the Democratic side that would be any better.

[arod4276]

The same guiliani who is trailing hillary by between 5-7 points in every poll i have seen recently is gonna win in a walk?

i hope not even though i cannot stand her

[Coy_Roy]

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If not, Giuliani likely wins over Hillary in a walk.

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Not in this lifetime.

Hillary would crush Giuliani.